Today, the Federal Trade Commission voted to rescind the agency’s 2015 competition policy statement limiting the Commission’s unfair and deceptive practices authority. The 2015 policy statement functionally removed the FTC’s ability to create competition rules and limited the kinds of enforcement actions the agency could bring against dominant firms that engaged in anti-competitive practices. Public Knowledge supports rescinding this statement and restoring the FTC’s full authority to regulate competition.
The following can be attributed to Charlotte Slaiman, Competition Policy Director at Public Knowledge:
“Rescinding the 2015 policy statement is one of the first signs that the FTC is ready for bold and decisive action with Chair Khan at the helm. The FTC is our nation’s competition agency. But this statement explicitly tied their hands, preventing them from fully taking on the statutory mission of protecting competition that Congress tasked them with. Rescinding this statement will allow the FTC to bring enforcement cases against those crushing competition and exploiting consumers, as well as engage in forward-thinking rulemaking without undue administrative burdens.”
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.